Rep. Robert A. Brady’s political lifeline received a jolt Monday after the statute of limitations expired on many of the charges he could have faced for a 2012 payoff case.

In recent months, two Brady aides and a former political rival were handed down indictments stemming from the case.

Justice Department lawyers allowed a series of agreements Brady had signed extending the five-year window in which he could be charged to expire on Sunday, sources told the Philadelphia Inquirer. Those extensions allowed the FBI to continue to investigate Brady but also gave Brady’s lawyers more time to convince investigators the Pennsylvania Democrat had done nothing wrong.

“We’ve always maintained that the congressman had done nothing wrong,” Brady’s attorney James Eisenhower told the Enquirer Tuesday. “The congressman had cooperated fully with the Justice Department investigation and gave them extra time to consider all the arguments.”

With the statute of limitations expired, Brady can no longer be charged with wire fraud or making an illegal campaign contribution. But investigators still have time indict him — if they choose — for lying to the FBI and filing a false campaign finance report in January 2013.

Earlier this month, the FBI began combing through Brady’s emails to see if he led a conspiracy to pay off a challenger to drop out of the Democratic primary in his district in 2012.